Governments hungry for extra revenue as they emerge from the coronavirus crisis should revisit their inheritance and estate tax, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Tuesday. Inheritance or estate tax make up only 0.5 per cent of overall tax revenues on average across the 24 countries in the OECD group of mostly developed countries that have such levies. "It's the middle class that opposes a tax that the middle class doesn't pay," OECD director of tax policy and administration Pascal Saint-Amans told reporters. Policies varied widely among OECD countries, with exemptions on transfers to children ranging from $17,000 in the Brussels region of Belgium to $11 million in the United States. As a result, the effective tax rates paid are often significantly lower than statutory tax rates.

Source: Standard Digital May 11, 2021 09:00 UTC